Presenting Panbo Podcast

Pardon the alliteration, but I’m pretty excited to debut the Panbo Podcast. This occasional series will feature conversations with important members of the marine electronics industry. In this first episode, I spoke with Vesper Marine’s CTO, Carl Omundsen, about the launch of their much-anticipated Cortex VHF radio, AIS transceiver, and boat monitoring system.

I’m anxious for listener feedback, and if you have ideas for future Panbo Podcasts, we’re all ears and would love to hear them.



Ben Stein

Ben Stein

Publisher of Panbo.com, passionate marine electronics enthusiast, 100-ton USCG master.

9 Responses

  1. Ben Ellison Ben Ellison says:

    First of all, please honk if you too think that Ben S put together a quality podcast on his first try.

    And it’s also super timely as I installed a test Cortex hub and handset on Friday and now have some time underway with the system. Wow! As innovative and smart as the system looked to me in demo, there’s just no substitute for experiencing it on my own boat. The integrated safety and situational awareness goals that Carl talks about in the podcast work exceptionally well, at least so far, and I think that the handset is going to grow on me as a very nice way to use VHF.

    The handset also makes for a very effective AIS plotter and NMEA 2000 instrument display, and the Hub is already doing some effective off-boat monitoring to the Cortex apps (though I haven’t yet hooked up its I/O ports).

    It’s true that the VHF side of Cortex still lacks some major features common to higher-end marine radios — like favorite channel scanning, intercom, and receive replay — including some that may never be added, like hailer support. But it’s also true that its single VHF/AIS antenna will also support a regular VHF, which I’m going to try.

    In short, congratulations to Ben and to Carl!

  2. Matt Byrne says:

    I have yet to listen to the podcast, but is it possible to post a transcription as well? I have seen this with other podcasts and I presume that some automated transcriber is being used. I much prefer to read over watching videos or listening to audio.

  3. Thanks Ben. Great to hear you are up and running with Cortex! We are planning on rolling out all of the features you mention above through a series of software updates, including hailer, and some may even make their way to the app on your phone. We are also really keen to get more input on what people like/dislike about their current VHF feature set. For example, does anyone else get annoyed that they have to disable dual watch in order to scan, and when your scan does pick up a busy channel by the time you realise and glance at the display its already moved on?

  4. Peter Geise says:

    Yes, wow, honk! Great interview excuse me podcast. The nuanced questions and answers come through better this way and to debut with such a breakthrough product. Simplicity is key and I appreciate as Carl says that this was not easy. I’m pushing 70 and want to stay on the water safely. Thanks oh thanks for giving me one button to call someone who’s about to run over me and a trustworthy app that lets me know my boat remains where I left it.

  5. greg young greg young says:

    Thumb up!!
    enjoyed Podcast #1 .. and wish you many many more to come!
    a logical extension for Panbo .. and very welcome … nice to be able to sit back “at the helm” with the AP doing the hard work, sit back and enjoy and learn with PP. (Panbo Podcast )

    Feel free to invite “listener” input on topics of interest !

  6. Peter Geise says:

    Perhaps like your interview in PassageMaker; how to update an existing helm. My new used 42’ trawler has a top-of-the-line but 15 year old radar and built in Loran C . So there’s one space anyway for something new. Lacking AIS so Vesper Cortex is one solution but then what? Digital network, wifi, cellular connection? It seems worthwhile to monitor the bilge pump and a backup camera would be nice. Perhaps the latest 7” chartplotter and an iPad running a nav app would be a safe place to start.

  7. Martin T Martin T says:

    Hi, great to see that you have started a podcast!

    Tried to find it on TuneIn (that is the default podcast app in my car), but no luck.

    https://tunein.com/search/?query=panbo

    Did I search wrong, or is it not possible to listen to your postcast on TuneIn?

    Thanks for providing the best marine electronics site!

    br,
    martin

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